Are Astros pitchers worth any (literally, any) prospects in trade?

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ST. LOUIS — In a perfect world of perfect information found in many introductory level economics lecture halls, no they’re not. Their veteran pitchers (not the 0-to-6ers before their first true negotiated contract) are worth absolutely zero prospects in a trade.

They, Wandy Rodriguez and Brett Myers, would would be signed for exactly their market value, and any team acquiring him would be acquiring him at the cost that he was worth.

Of course, this is an imperfect world as evidenced by the fact that the American League still uses the DH.

So where does this imperfect world deviate from a scenario where veterans would have no trade value, and how does this explain how the trade deadline works? There are four ways.

1. Performance changes relative to contract
That’s the simplest one. The player gets hurt, or the player impresses or regresses compared to what the team thought it was getting.

In the Astros’ case, this works both ways.

Myers was signed at the peak of his value last year as he was putting together a renaissance sort of season, but this year he has regressed to the point where it’s questionable as to whether he would get the $10 million for 2012 plus 2013 option that he will be owed by the Astros or whoever takes on his contract.

Rodriguez has held steady, on the other hand, putting up exactly the same ERA in 2011 as he did in 2010 even amid some drops in the peripherals.

2. Different opinions of value
The Reds, a pitching-short team with a chance to take advantage of an unusually weak top of the National League Central, or the Yankees, a team with few financial constraints and high pressure to win every year, for instance, may put a different value on the pitcher than the market in general.

3. Structure of the contract
This is where the Astros could really be hurt. The Astros figured out their valuations for Myers and Rodriguez, both when still under team control for a bit longer. But they would be trading a player who is a year older and now has more average annual value on his contract than he did at the beginning.

The reason: they backloaded the deals, paying both $7 million this year and eight figures for the remaining life of the contract in order to get under their 2011 payroll requirements as Drayton McLane was selling the team.

4. The willingness to eat cash
The opposite of No. 3, this was what got the Astros the prospects they were able to get for Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt last year as they ate roughly half the salaries upon trading them to the Yankees and Phillies, respectively.

General manager Ed Wade declined to discuss whether the Astros would have a willingness to eat salary in general.

At this point, though, are you trading for nothing and then buying prospects?